Heritage Uncovered - Curated by Catherine Moore

Manning Clark House

Open Wednesday to Sunday from 11:00am to 2:00pm

To coincide with this year’s Canberra and Region Heritage Festival, Manning Clark House is putting on an exhibition called heritage uncovered. Committee member Catherine Moore, curator of the show and one of the participating artists, has invited creatives from the region and beyond to respond to the theme of heritage – built, environmental, indigenous, political or other. The result is a diverse range of works in painting, printmaking, photography, ceramics, fibre, sculpture, glass, metal, and with found objects.

Participating artists, in alphabetical order, are Alison Alder, Surya Bajracharya, Paul Bott, Lucinda Boyd, Tim Brook, Victoria Clutterbuck, Bill Dorman, Lea Durie, Cecile Galiazzo, Gwenna Green, Basil Hall, Lizzie Hall, Maggie Hickey, Ruth Hingston, Deb Johansen, Sam Kidd, Julian Laffan, Nikki Main, Lis Mertens, Jakub Mazurkiewicz, Sky Mazurkiewicz, Catherine Moore, Libby Moore, John Pratt, Angelo Rossi, Franki Sparke, Kate Stephens, William Verdon and Lani Westerman.
After the official opening on Friday April 12 we’ll uncover more about the artists and their works. Watch this space!
The exhibition begins on Wednesday April 10 and runs Wednesday to Sunday inclusive every week until it closes on May 12. Opening hours are 11am-2pm.

Here’s a taste of the show:

Nikki Main’s Forgotten Promise
cast glass, polished, velvet cushion, 2018
380 x 480 x 120mm

Nikki Main’s cast crystal glass piece, Forgotten Promise, hints at an official paper document, folding itself into a parcel of land. The land represents Hill 60, a parcel of land on the Wollongong coast inhabited by local aboriginal people – the Wodi Wodi people of Dharawal Nation.

Rachel Bolton’s accompanying essay details relevant legal history of the property of Hill 60. The Commonwealth Government resumed the land for defence purposes. In 1942, resident Roy Burns wrote: “The Officer in charge gave us six days to move from Hill 60 and he informed me that if I left my place it would be cared for and I could return to it after the war….”

After the war, people removed from Hill 60 could not return. The Commonwealth government offered the land for private sale in 2006.Community outrage ensued and Wollongong City Council purchased the land
for $1.00.

Forgotten Promise keeps alive the memory that, although the land is in public ownership, it does not address the forgotten promise that people could return home – a reminder that public property can have a past of exclusion.

Nikki and Rachel are delighted to include their work in this exhibition in honour of the late Dymphna Clark and her work as a driving force with H.C.Coombs and Judith Wright setting up the Aboriginal Treaty Committee.

Nikki isn’t on social media but here’s her website:
nikkimain.com